Book recommendations for total newbie

macrumors member

Over a beer or two last night, my wife expressed an interest in learning how to write iPhone apps.

Quite surprising really as she's never shown any inclination this way before, and is not technology literate.

So, can anyone recommend any good books for the total beginner - someone who has never even seen basic before?

Knowing her, and how she works, what I really need is something simple and light hearted which will allow her to get a basic iPhone app running quickly. She's not the kind of person who could wade through K&R and learn C first, she'll need to see something fairly rapidly to keep her interested enough to carry on learning. Something like a dummies book would be ideal, but I hear the Obj-C one is aimed at XCode 3.2, so she will be confused by using XCode 4.

I would just start her on C# (its what I do for a living), but its the iPhone that has got her thinking, and I don't really want to splash out on MonoTouch in case she doesn't get in to it.

macrumors 6502a

I'm a total newbie too and i've purchased a few books which i have struggled to get to grips with to be honest and to make things worse they are written for Xcode 3.2 which doesn't help.

I was told about this book, Programming in Objective-C (3rd Edition) by Stephen G. Kochan which i purchased and so far i'm getting to grips with everything he's teaching, he explains things very well and gives nice examples.

I don't think it's going to be a fast process to learn Objective-C for your wife, if like me i'm having to read some chapters several times because the first time i maybe don't totally understand the concepts being explained, second time i start understanding what's being taught but wouldn't be able to duplicate the examples given in the book without reference to the book itself.

macrumors newbie

I think she should at least learn Objective-C first or she may be lost with the syntax of creating iPhone apps. This is a good book to start with. This one is good also. I have both in PDF format (although I think the version of Programming in Objective-c 2.0 I have is the second edition). PM me if you would like and I can email them to you.

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I am looking at getting into IOS development. I have 10+ years of Java programming experience. What books would you recommend?

macrumors 6502

I'm a total newbie too and i've purchased a few books which i have struggled to get to grips with to be honest and to make things worse they are written for Xcode 3.2 which doesn't help.

I was told about this book, Programming in Objective-C (3rd Edition) by Stephen G. Kochan which i purchased and so far i'm getting to grips with everything he's teaching, he explains things very well and gives nice examples.

I don't think it's going to be a fast process to learn Objective-C for your wife, if like me i'm having to read some chapters several times because the first time i maybe don't totally understand the concepts being explained, second time i start understanding what's being taught but wouldn't be able to duplicate the examples given in the book without reference to the book itself.

I hope this is of benefit to you

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When I'm learning a new language, I usually read the entire book cover to cover first to get the overall ideas. Then I'll read each chapter, one at a time. Then I'll reread the chapter and do all the exercises. I find by then the ideas are pretty much tattooed in my brain.

macrumors 6502

Thank you so much for the literature, in your opinion which is better and why? I do know one is specifically written for Xcode 4.2 so maybe this is the best to start with?

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I think both books are excellent, but for me, I'd start with Learning Objective-C on the Mac. The Programming in Objective-C 2.0 gets a little math heavy, which makes it little harder read in my opinion.

macrumors 6502a

I think both books are excellent, but for me, I'd start with Learning Objective-C on the Mac. The Programming in Objective-C 2.0 gets a little math heavy, which makes it little harder read in my opinion.

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Yes I've been told by others to be prepared for a lot of math

I'm about to go into chapter 4, continue on or start the other book? Lol

macrumors 6502

I struggled with it :$ but it was my first book, maybe I jumped in to fast lol

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I feel the same way. I wanted to run 100mph before I learned to crawl. I've now learned that it is better to to learn properly than to put out a garbage product. Or put out a product and have no idea how to update and upgrade it. Also keep in mind that programming books do have errors. Always look for the errata for the book you are reading.

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